


Sacred as a Secret

by HungryLibrary



Category: RWBY
Genre: Dark, F/F, and she let emerald see that side of her, au hiding under canon, if ruby secretly enjoyed killing grimm a bit too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-04 04:20:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5320220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HungryLibrary/pseuds/HungryLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I knew it.” </p>
<p>Sickles fell, steps on long ago fallen leaves. Emerald pulled her close staring into the steel that silver paint had been hiding. “I knew there was something wrong with your smile, hated it from the moment I saw- it’s fake, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>The new smile flashed back, razor bright. “Fake as rhinestones to rubies.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacred as a Secret

Her arms wound around Emerald’s back fingers trailing over empty scabbards, a shiver when they finally touched skin.

Breath hissed. Red eyes drooped as Emerald leaned down, Ruby rose just enough to meet her, lips light and dry and electric as the double would-be-stolen kiss.

A break for air. Laughter, Emerald chuckled darkly at a sudden thought. “And no one would ever believe it if I told them…”

“One or two might.” Her uncle, the headmaster at her school, the Dust Witch with eyes like fire. “But people see what they want, mostly. Most people wouldn’t want to see this side of me.”

Calloused finger tips traced along one cheek, mapping it. “ _I do._ ” Emerald whispered, hand trailing into uneven hair, tilting Ruby into the next kiss- less electric this time and more thrumming, the frantic rush of blood from a wound.

Later red eyes drifted open to find steel already watching, keen and hungry as any blade. “Thought you might.” The smaller girl agreed.

Ruby pulled an arm free, pulled back slightly to hold it up between them.

“Maybe now you have this, you’ll stop stealing my billfold.” She teased as she waved the evidence under Emerald’s nose.

The thief blinked, shocked that she hadn’t felt the little trophy being stolen, then she grinned and laugh out loud again, spinning Ruby through the melting black smoke of dead Grimm and fluttering red of semblance-born rose petals.

Emerald had given her life to a goddess of fire once, and gotten nothing but burns for her vows.

This spirit of bloodshed and secrets under smiles was a much more sublet beauty, not intent on ruling the world, and why would she be? People were an excuse to her, saving lives an unquestionable alibi.

While others were watching Ruby reaped Grimm like a farmer mowed wheat. With great skill and pride, without any attention to the individual victim.

On her own though, she became an artist, a sculptor with every slice and cut, dragging howls of agony from monsters who should feel nothing but hunger. She drew out the finishing blow like a talented lover, pausing to smile a second before the time came. And when the last strike landed her cold eyes reflected nothing but contempt.

She was beautiful. A weapon in human skin. A soul in the shape of scythe.

And a blade, unlike fire, was something you could hold if you were careful. Could carry right beside your heart if you never for a moment forgot about the thirsty edge, always eager to drink.

Emerald could not forget even if she wanted to. She never wanted to. Just as, now she had seen this side of Ruby, she never wanted to see the false one again.

That was likely the only reason Cinder noticed nothing when Emerald eventually, reluctantly, returned.

The moment Ruby left those woods her mask of a smile was back, as cloying and insulting as ever. And Emerald hated it even more for having seen the real thing, hated it but not Ruby, not Ruby who let her mask slip slightly in their stolen moments alone, not nearly often enough, better than nothing.

But how would anyone watching know that Emerald’s dark scowl was only for the chains on the girl it was aimed at? They had no reason to suspect. They did not _want_ to suspect. And so, as Ruby had said, they remained blissfully blind.

And that at least gave Emerald some satisfaction, even when steel was painted over with gaudy, grotesquely counterfeit silver.   

With the truth and a kiss, Ruby had given Emerald something more precious than jewels. A secret that belonged to no one else but them. The secret of malice hidden just below the surface, twin mirrors reflecting the image of an innocence dead before Ruby could have understood the word.

It was Emerald’s now.

And she gave her heart to Ruby in return.


End file.
